Why speed dating is one of my favorite activities for cooperative learning

I love trying out new activities for cooperative learning, and speed dating is one of my favorite methods of encouraging students to work together. I love to speed date in the classroom, because it’s both intimate and anonymous. It’s very intimate because of the closeness of two people talking, yet also quite anonymous as you’re only talking to each other for a short period of time. There’s just something about getting students to sit face to face with one person and focus all their attention on them. 

I use this teaching strategy for short lesson moments ranging from 10 to 20 minutes. We move the desks so that they’re in long rows and students each face another student. I’ll get them to move one seat to the right each time I ring a bell. The teacher needs to structure it so that it doesn’t end in chaos, but the reward is huge and it’s so much fun! Below, I’ll explain 5 ways that have worked for me and that were amazing for student learning. Wanna try one way now? Grab my 6 free sheets with questions about novels for a speed date session about literary elements here!

Second language learning through cooperative learning

As one of my activities for cooperative learning, I’ve used speed dating in the following ways:

Meet my classmates

For this activity I created sheets with fun things to know about people; words like: hobbies, pets, family, friends, home, etc. Then I put one sheet in between each pair. I had them discuss the word on the sheet with their partner. You could also write questions about the topic on the sheets; for example, “What are your hobbies? Do you play any sports? Do you play an instrument?” on a sheet about hobbies.

Through asking each other questions and having to answer them, students learn how to phrase things so that they are understood. They will also become more fluent by practicing having conversations like this. In addition, they might learn new vocab or sentence structures from their partner.

Discussing literary elements

I did this activity after reading a novel with my students, or while we were still reading it. I created 6 sheets with literary elements on there: Setting, Characters, Themes, Plot, Title, and Conflict (and more if you think they could be important) and added some questions to discuss. Then I put one sheet in between each pair. I had them discuss how each literary element was important in the novel we were reading.

This activity helps students talk about literary elements in a non-threatening way, almost in private. They are able to share their knowledge with a classmate and also gain some from the other person. It helps them think and dig deeper into what they really know.

Practice speeches or presentations

This one I’ve done right before students had to give a presentation or a speech in front of a group for a grade. I got students to each practice the speech or presentation on each other, so in their speed dating pairs. The listening party would provide feedback, and the other way around, and they would do this a few more times to get more feedback fast and in a relatively comfortable setting.

This exercise provides a way for students to practice something scary for one person only and get useful feedback at the same time.

Gap fill exercise

I like this activity specifically as a speaking exercise to increase fluency. I make sure one party always has information the other party needs, and students must ask each other questions to find out what they need to know. For example, I’ve done an activity where student A had to find out what was in the picture that student B was holding. This gets students to ask each other questions and answer them in the correct way. It’s not only a speaking activity, but listening skills are also practiced throughout.

Play a character

This activity is similar to Who Am I?, the game. Each student must play a character. First you have to give the students on the one side information about this character. Then you get the students on the opposite side to find out about these characters by asking questions. The characters could come from a novel you’re studying, they could be telling a story the other party needs to uncover, or they can be used to practice asking questions in general. It’s a fun activity that could be used both as a brain break or as a serious task for practicing what students learned. 

I love these as activities for cooperative learning so much I want to do them all the time. I do try to fit them in a few timesa year in my different grade levels, because they are so fun.

Ideals in cooperative learning

Cooperative learning means students working together in groups of various sizes – usually no more than 4 or 5 members. Each member of the group is responsible for the whole group’s learning, but also typically has an individual task they are in charge of. Students are meant to teach each other as well. Cooperative learning focuses on group success rather than individual success. A teacher may choose to have a mix of students of different levels or abilities in each group.

Advantages of students working together in groups are positive interdependence, group accountability, a strengthening of interpersonal skills, and group processing. Read more on the subject here.

Cooperative learning types

There are three types of cooperative learning. Speed dating is an example of informal cooperative learning. Below I will briefly explain the three types.

Cooperative base groups

Cooperative base groups are learning groups that are long term and heterogeneous. The goal of these groups is to provide the members with support, encouragement and assistance so that they can develop academically. This type is typically used for semester-long group projects.

Informal cooperative learning groups

In informal cooperative learning groups students will work together temporarily, in ad hoc groups that will only stay together for one discussion or one class period to achieve joint learning goals. These groups are used to focus students’ attention on the material being taught.

Formal cooperative learning groups

Formal cooperative learning groups work together for one or several class periods to complete specific tasks and assignments and achieve learning goals. These groups are structured by instruction, setting the task and the structure in which the members are supposed to work together. Teachers monitor groups while they work, and they evaluate student learning and group functioning. All students are individually accountable for a specific task

Read more on this in this article.

I hope you enjoyed reading about speed dating as one of the great activities for cooperative learning, and I hope you’ll give it a try some time. I promise, students will love it and so will you!

To check out other articles I wrote on what I think are cool things to know about for teaching, check this page. Or for more blog posts on practicing language skills, go here.

Wanna try out some discussion questions for a speed dating session?

Discussion cards are great for this teaching method, if you ask me. I have sets for all the seasons and a bunch of major holidays as well. They keep students talking to each other about fun topics. They’re great for the intimacy of one-on-one conversations in the classroom! Check out my bundle of discussion cards here!